Access

Essay

Nature 458, 832-833 (16 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/458832a; Published online 15 April 2009

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

Can evolution explain how minds work?

See associated Correspondence: Wolpert, Nature 459, 506 (May 2009)Shettleworth, Nature 459, 506 (May 2009)

Johan J. Bolhuis1 & Clive D. L. Wynne2

  1. Johan J. Bolhuis is in the Department of Biology and Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
    Email: j.j.bolhuis@uu.nl
  2. Clive D. L. Wynne is in the Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.
    Email: wynne@ufl.edu

Top

Biologists have tended to assume that closely related species will have similar cognitive abilities. Johan J. Bolhuis and Clive D. L. Wynne put this evolutionarily inspired idea through its paces.

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is broadly accepted among biologists, but its implications for the study of cognition are far from clear. Few within the scientific pale would argue against the proposition that life on Earth has evolved and that this general principle can be extended to the process of thought.